The assignment was to analyze Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s famous ‘Allegories of Good and Bad Government’ and then to use collage to create our own. This was probably my favorite review so far, the discussion went way beyond the work and the entire class ended up discussing philosophy.

– In my collage, I tried to use allegorical figures similar to Lorenzetti’s to represent the characteristics that make for good government or bad government.
– I creatively interpreted the rule about only using one sheet of A3 per collage by cutting the sheet in half and making each twice as long. This was in responce to Lorenzetti’s compositional strategy; which relied on a linear + horizontal reading to portray so many figures and scenes without them becoming incoherent.
– There is a lot of symbolism, some of which manifested sub-consciously.. Check them out.

In Good government, the clearly defined city and country are both held in check by the allegorical figures of design, education, liberty, and security. Within the space these figures carve out, children are playing, representing a positive future. The overall aesthetic is selectively minimalist adhering to approximate symmetry.

In Bad Government, the opposite is true. The composition takes cues from Good Government, but reads more chaotically. The sprawl of the city creates a texture which spans the entire sheet. Imposed onto this sprawl are the figures of waste, drunkenness, censorship, and anti-liberty; looking quite seductive.